Civil rights leader Al Sharpton led a march on Wednesday, to the Florida Capitol building to combat Gov. Ron DeSantis and his administration over the halt of an Advanced Placement course in African American studies in public classrooms.
Sharpton was joined by Democrats, State Representative Fentrice Driskell and State Senator Shevrin Jones among other local government officials, religious leaders, black clergymen, and student organizations. Sharpton, who is also the founding president of the National Action Network, claims DeSantis's latest actions attempted to “sanitize Black history.” The activist would even compare DeSantis to former President Donald Trump, calling him “baby Trump” to the audience.
“That's his [DeSantis] new nickname–baby trump,” said Sharpton. “People got together, black, and LGBTQ. We beat big Trump, so we can beat little Trump. After Disney one day, after Blacks the next day, just like a baby — give him a pacifier and let some grown folk run the state of Florida.”
The march added fuel to an ongoing fire, it seems.
Last month, the Florida Department of Education criticized the initial AP course in a letter to The College Board, as being against the state’s standards, citing a list of topics and authors as grounds for rejection.
In a news release Wednesday, it was found that changes were made. However, the material did not discuss topics of black feminism, black lives movement, or black queer studies. The revised framework also lists political and policy debate topics, such as black reparations, black conservatism, and black ideologies; as “optional.”
Authors whose previous works were in the draft for the course appeared to have been removed from the final framework.
Sharpton ended his speech by advocating for his supporters to vote against opposing officials in unity, describing voting as “a weapon in a fight.”